Brahms Lullaby
by Unproper Grammar
Summary: ['Do you ever think of...what might have been if we had been human, Edward'] After a run in with a toddler at a grocery store, Edward and Bella discuss what their family could have been like, had they both been human. [ExB, Vamp!Bella]


**Unproper Grammar: **So last night, at around ten to three AM, I got this idea and had to flush it out. Which was a really, really bad idea, as I needed to be up early for a summer meeting at school. :(

Disclaimer: Don't own Twilight.

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**Brahms Lullaby**

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"Get back here right this instant!" a shrill voice sounded through the aisles of the grocery store. "I mean it, right now, or else no television for a week!"

The blonde haired woman chases a little blonde haired boy through the loops in the produce section. She seems stressed, frazzled and tired. But the child? He seems energetic as lightning, laughing with mirth and holding a bag of cookies to his chest.

The little boy keeps running and running; if he tires her out enough, he'll eventually get his way, he reckons. It's a fool-proof plan, one he's used many a time.

"Ryan, I mean it!" his mother shrieks, "You put that bag of cookies down, young man, and march right back over here!" Her breathing is becoming ragged, and the click of her heels has slowed. He's winning.

So he runs faster, as fast as his little legs will carry him. He glances behind him to see that his mother has indeed, slowed. He grins and turns a corner, only to be met with the sight of a pair of legs, covered in denim.

And since he had such momentum, he collides head first into the person standing in front of him, and falls backwards on the ground. He looks up slowly, worried of what's to come.

Two pairs of topaz eyes are looking down at him, amusement playing in their features.

It's another mommy and daddy. The mommy has brown hair, and is smiling at him. The daddy has reddish hair, kind of like that girl from Pokemon, only not, and he's laughing slightly. They seem to be a nice mommy and daddy, who'd probably buy him cookies without making him run first.

The daddy bends down, and helps Ryan up. "Are you okay, there?" he asks, smiling.

Ryan grins a toothy grin (though several spaces are empty) and nods. "I'm okay, mister!" He looks up as the mommy leans down and picks up the bag of cookies. The daddy glances at her. "Better give those to his mother, Bella." Ryan pouts.

The mommy winks at Ryan, and looks around. His mother is running frantically over to them, limping slightly and muttering something about her 'damn shoes'.

"Oh, Ryan!" she sighs, "Have you apologized for crashing into these poor people?" She looks up at the couple and blinks a couple of times. They're both stunningly beautiful young people, she decides. Their features are so angular and defined and their eyes. Like butterscotch. She shakes herself out of her reverie. They're just kids, after all, in their mid-twenties at the most.

She smiles apologetically and scoops up her son. "I am so, so sorry," she says, wincing slightly. "He needs to be put down for a nap." Ryan's face falls ever so slightly.

"Don't worry about it, ma'am," the young man says, grinning, his eyes twinkling. "No harm done - on both sides," he glances at his companion and she nods, holding a bag of cookies.

"He was carrying this," she said, presenting it forward. "Not quite sure if you planned to buy it..."

"Oh," the woman groans slightly, and takes the bag from the girl. "Thank you. And I'm very, very sorry." With that, she turns on her heel and heads for the check out line, feeling suddenly out of place among the two gorgeous models (she's decided they're models, for certain. No one is that good looking).

Once they're out of eye sight, but not ear shot, Ryan proclaims:

_"They were a nice mommy and daddy, weren't they mommy?"_

And the young pair glance at each other, and look away.

---

The grocery store was not a place that a common setting for Edward and Bella Cullen to appear in, but since they were having company of the human type that evening, they figured it best to at least serve something that would be considered normal. So they ventured off, planning to just grab a few quick things to prepare, and be on their way.

And then the little boy had thrown himself into Edward's legs, and later proclaimed them to be a mommy and daddy.

It was a generalization, of course. The boy had to have been three or four, at the most. To children that age; everyone is a mommy or daddy, just like the teachers lived at the school and Ninja Turtles lived in the sewer.

Still...it hit a nerve. A nerve of longing.

They had finished their shopping practically in silence, speaking only to ask the other for a second opinion. They then loaded the bags into the trunk of their new silver car (Edward had purchased it as a treat the week prior), and drove home.

Their evening was fairly pleasant. Carlisle had come, along with Alice and Jasper, and a few of Carlisle's co-workers, which was the need for the food. However, the words still rang clear through Edward and Bella's heads throughout the duration of the night.

It had been well over sixty years since Edward had changed Bella, and she never once regretted it. Not during the three days of excruciating pain, not during the uncontrollable blood lust she had experienced during the first two years of her life and not when she heard that Jacob had married and was expecting a child a year later.

She was completely content with her decision. But still...

"Do you ever think of...what might have been if we had been human, Edward?" She asks as she takes a seat next to him on the piano bench. His fingers are idly playing a disconnected tune. He shrugs.

"Sometimes," he plucks out an A minor chord, "Not often, though, but yes, sometimes. Do you?" He ascends to a C minor chord, and doesn't meet her eyes.

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, I do." He tensed beside her. "Not often, either, and I don't imagine what it would be like had I stayed human," she clarified, "but more what it would be like had it been the both of us." He relaxed.

"Hmm," he begins to play the opening notes of her lullaby, and she leans her head against his shoulder. "Do you think we would have been high-school sweethearts?" He chuckles.

"Oh, most definitely," she laughs, too. "We probably would have been dramatic; breaking up and getting back together week after week. A huge topic of conversation for all of the Jessica Stanleys out there."

He smiles softly. "A Mike Newton type would slip in here and there, I bet, trying to fill the void."

"But it wouldn't work," she sighs, "because I'd always been hung up over you. And eventually, we'd get back together and go off to college together, just like everyone thought we did." She recalls a time when she had been Isabella Swan, and 'left for college', just like everyone else.

"Would we get married?" he inquires, his playing lulling to a de-cresendo.

She nods again. "Of course. But after college, during which we still broke up several times. The girls were monsters there, constantly throwing themselves at you. It was more than I could handle."

Edward looks at her then, meeting her eyes. "But you must have known you were the only one for me!" He says in a exaggerated whisper. She bites back a smile.

"Oh, I knew," she says, remaining serious, "but my ego took many blows. But we married, a small affair and Charlie walked me down the aisle, just like he did all those years ago." She smiles fondly, happy to have that last memory with her father.

Edward's playing slows completely and he begins to play a different tune, one she had heard before, but never from his piano. She knows what's coming next, and it hurts a little bit to bring it up.

"Would we have children?" he asks, so softly that she almost didn't catch it. But it's the song, and their earlier encounter with the young boy that confirms it in her head, anyways.

She doesn't say anything at first, but then she continues. "Yep. Our first was a boy. His name was Charlie, after my dad, you know. He had your hair."

Edward remains quiet, and she can tell that he isn't breathing. "But he had your eyes," he brings a hand to her face, ceasing his song, and he looks down at her, his eyes smoldering. "He's a little clumsy, too, but it can't be helped. He gets it from his mother."

Bella rolls her eyes. "He has an awful obsession with cars. Hot Wheels are everywhere, and we're always stepping on them. Even you, still the avid car lover that you are, curse the damn things day in and day out."

Edward laughs and looks her in the eye again. "Does he have a sibling?"

"Yes, a little sister. Her name's Elizabeth, after your mother. She doesn't like to let anyone but you call her Lizzie, though. She's graceful, and loves all the little girlie things, which we blame on Alice, our friend from college. She had your hair, too."

"And your lips," he runs a finger against them then.

"But she had your eyes," she pauses and rests her forehead against his. "They're green."

He swallows then, and something catches in his throat. "I think that's enough pretending for today, Bella," he whispers. She nods, and leans forward to kiss him. He responds eagerly, before pulling back and returning to the song he had been playing moments ago.

Bella sighs and leans against him again, as the chords of 'Brahms Lullaby' play on.

---

The days and months and years go by, and neither of them brings up this conversation again. There's no mentions of Charlie or Lizzie or green eyes. It doesn't strain their relationship, like one might worry. They're Edward and Bella, and as far as they're concerned; their invincible and it's for eternity, so there's no point in getting upset about what might have been.

Especially when it's so impossible.

---

**Unproper Grammar:** So that's it! I'm not really happy with the ending, but considering the plot bunny just came to me so randomly, I'm happy with how it turned out. I just can't help but feel that years down the road, if Bella became a vampire, and though she and Edward's physical forms remained that of teenagers, they'd still eventually want children.

In any case, it was something I couldn't get out of my head.


End file.
